Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.4113

c9.4113

It has been mentioned that the Upaniṣads are appendices of the Āraṇyakas. Still there is not much difference between the two and hence they cannot be separated from one another so easily. The Upaniṣads are called Vedāntas, (The aim and completion of the Vedas), because they are the end of the Vedas. The Vedāntas belong to the later period of the Vedic age. Instruction in Vedāntas was given only after completing the study of the mantras (Vedas) and the Brāhmaṇas. The Upaniṣads contain philosophical speculations about the conception of Brahman and the Vedas. The word Veda includes the Vedāṅgas also. Vedāṅgas (Ancillaries of the Vedas) are Śikṣā (phonetics), Vyākaraṇa (grammar), Chandas (metrics), Nirukta (etymology), Jyotiṣa (astronomy), and Kalpa (ritual). At first instruction is given in the study of Brahman and the study of Vedas. When more discussions and expositions on them are needed, the study of Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas are resorted to. In course of time the Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas, which contain discussions and expositions of the Vedas became independent branches of study under these names. That is why they contain mainly prose texts.